At 7000 feet above sea level, grapes do not grow in Salida, so Vino Salida began sourcing grapes from Palisade and Paonia, Colorado. Winemaker, Steve Flynn's desire to craft a truly local product lead him to honey mead production. In 2010, he met Jamie Johnston, a fourth-generation local beekeeper, and started crafting traditional honey mead from her raw, alfalfa/clover honey. Vino Salida focuses on three distinct styles of traditional mead: Semi-sweet, Sweet, and Oak barrel aged. As these styles have developed, Steve's creativity has led to experiments with other unique styles that are not represented heavily in the Colorado marketplace. These include Hopped Mead, Sparkling Mead, and Vermouth-style Mead (metheglin). Vino Salida Wine Cellars offers tastes of their meads and wine to travelers and locals in their fun & funky tasting parlour. Surrounded by mead and wine barrels, the space lends itself to an education about our process of mead and wine production. In addition, Steve creates events that focus on tasting different styles of mead and wine including the annual Colorado MeadFest at Vino Salida on July 22, 2017.